In the shadow of David Beckham, nearly two dozen players fanned out across midtown Manhattan on a February morning hoping to spread the Major League Soccer gospel.

While their teammates continued the preseason grind, players visiting New York City two weeks ago hit newsrooms, TV and radio studios and photo shoots promoting both the upcoming season and themselves.

All the while, Beckham's name remained in the back of many minds and on the tip of many tongues.

It was impossible to avoid conflating the league's unprecedented marketing push with the offseason departure of Beckham, the English icon whose five-plus years with the Los Angeles Galaxy lifted soccer's profile in the U.S. and Canada. For example, Beckham was the subject of the second question Fox News' Brian Kilmeade asked Vancouver Whitecaps captain and U.S. World Cup veteran Jay DeMerit during a radio interview.

Beckham's shadow was figurative and literal. A few blocks south of the News Corp. headquarters, a massive Beckham billboard overlooked Herald Square. There was another one advertising his clothing line across the street from Penn Station.

Still a niche product

On Wednesday night, MLS commissioner Don Garber discussed the ramp-up to this weekend's season openers and emphatically declared that his league intends to be among the world's best in 2022. His address, broadcast on YouTube and featuring the participation of journalists and fans via Google Hangout, was one of several components of the most forceful and unified P.R. push in MLS' 18-year history. It's called "March To Soccer."

The timing of that march is smart, because despite all of its progress, MLS remains a niche product. It has a long way to go before it's considered among the planet's elite leagues.

MLS teams matter in their local markets, and last year's regular-season average attendance of 18,807 was a league record, surpassing that of the NHL and NBA. But TV ratings — which must rise to attract the rights fees that will catapult MLS to the next level — remain poor. The most widely watched telecast last year, a June game between the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders, attracted some 888,000 viewers. Many matches on ESPN and NBC drew fewer than 200,000.

Getting a soccer fan in Kansas City to buy a ticket to a game at Sporting Park is one thing. Getting that fan to stay home on a Saturday to watch FC Dallas play the San Jose Earthquakes is another.

Meanwhile, for those players who aren't on billboards, Q ratings are low. Thierry Henry and Robbie Keane made their names in Europe before arriving in the U.S. Landon Donovan, who will return from hiatus in late March, crossed over thanks to his World Cup exploits.

But most of the men marketed in Manhattan by MLS are relative unknowns. Reigning MVP Chris Wondolowski was one of them. He likely could walk unnoticed through most American sports bars, and he has 62 MLS goals over the past three years. Imagine a baseball player averaging 50 home runs per season cloaked in such anonymity.

'Moving on' from Beckham

Beckham, the long-time marketing crutch and obvious target for the mainstream media, morning shows and national magazines, is gone. But MLS hasn't withered or withdrawn. Instead, it's trying to step up its game with the "March," an ambitious campaign that sends a clear signal. The league isn't shying away from what it is and has a sense of what it intends to become.

"Most people agree that David was a catalyst. He was in many ways an architect, and he left a much bigger, much stronger Major League Soccer in the end of 2012 then when he came in '07," MLS chief marketing officer Howard Handler told Sporting News. "His celebrity continues to be transcendent. He continues to be a fascinating character. But he was part of a constellation of stars and the big developments in our league as he was moving on."

Handler knows a bit about sports promotion and a bit about the Google Hangout demographic MLS now believes will be the "rocket fuel" that powers it to 2022. Hired 13 months ago, his previous stops include Madison Square Garden, EMI Music, the NFL and MTV.

"I'm here to build a fan base. Beginning and end, period, end of discussion," he said. "I don't think it's as simple as figuring out who's in your star chamber and making sure that people love those personalities. Soccer, more than anything, is a team sport. It is a connection between fans, clubs and players."

No more training wheels

There's no more Beckham smart bomb, so now the attack plan must vary. "March To Soccer" is a multi-event, multi-platform initiative designed to highlight the MLS stadium experience, the athletes and the league's embrace of technology. There are no obvious hooks this season—no celebrity players and no new teams or stadiums for the first time since 2004. The training wheels are off.

So this year, MLS is trying to create a buzz around both its players and the trappings of the game.

This week, clubs are unveiling new uniforms at events for local fans and media. The third weekend of the regular season, scheduled for March 16-17, will feature a host of rivalry games like New York Red Bulls-D.C. United, Real Salt Lake-Colorado Rapids and Seattle Sounders-Portland Timbers.

Then there's the aforementioned marketing and media tour, which featured 23 players in Manhattan and several more in Miami visiting as many reporters and sponsors as they could.

Henry and Keane were there, alongside accomplished MLS veterans like Dwayne De Rosario and Kyle Beckerman. But there were fresh faces as well — players like Chris Pontius, Michael Farfan, Sean Johnson and Steven Lenhart, who MLS officials hope soon will occupy Handler's star chamber.

"This is the first time we've ever done this," Beckerman told Sporting News during an event at Red Bull Arena that included a variety photo and video shoots and interviews. "This is a big step in the right direction. It seems like they're trying to do the right thing."

Beckerman, the captain of Real Salt Lake, likely would be a household name if he played another sport. From his laid-back demeanor and dry sense of humor (he deftly covered for his iPhone ownership by telling the director of a Microsoft video shoot that he'd recently sold his Apple stock) to his dreadlocks and bohemian sense of style, the U.S. national team midfielder and four-time MLS All-Star is altogether marketable.

DeMerit, who spent that morning playing soccer with Kilmeade outside the massive Fox building on Sixth Avenue, has a back story (and now a fiancée, Olympic gold medalist Ashleigh McIvor) that should transcend his sport. Undrafted out of the University of Illinois-Chicago, he moved to England to play amateur ball in 2003. Three years later, he was in the Premier League, In 2010, he started at a World Cup.

DeMerit talked a bit about that experience on Fox, but also answered questions about Beckham and participated in a ridiculous soccer "quiz" that asked whether goalkeepers are allowed to use their hands, among other posers.

"This is kind of the reason I'm here, to take on this responsibility and continue to try and grow this league," DeMerit told Sporting News. "I take it personally, to take the time to talk about soccer and have MLS' back.

"The more they try to have our back, the more we'll grow together."

And as for the patronizing or ignorant questions MLS players sometimes field from the mainstream media?

"At least they're asking," he said.

'A team effort'

"These kind of guys, the more of these kind of players we can get here, the less David Beckhams we need," DeMerit said. "It's more of a team effort. If you're going to get the big superstar, of course that puts a natural spotlight on the league and of course that's going to be easier to market.

"But I think there are enough players in this league that are marketable to continue to make strides."

So DeMerit played ball, literally and figuratively, with Kilmeade. Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez did the same with Kathie Lee Gifford in L.A. In New York, Lenhart, the San Jose striker, showed Paulie Pabst of The Dan Patrick Show just how rough and tumble soccer can be with a flying kick to the chest. And Wondolowski went shopping with Kick TV and was photographed in a silver suit and bright pink hat that certainly made the MVP more noticeable.

"We're extremely fortunate that the vast majority of the athletes in Major League Soccer are articulate guys who are engaging with the media, enjoy it and don't look at as a negative aspect of their job," said MLS executive vice president Dan Courtemanche, who organized the tour (which also included some serious stops like Bloomberg News and the United Nations).

TV the tipping point

The trick is to get more people interested in those athletes. MLS has done a great deal of marketing that promotes the stadium atmosphere. There are no flags or drums at NFL and MLB games, and MLS has done well to highlight that "point of difference." But video of fans jumping and singing as smoke rises around them doesn't tell the story of Wondolowski or Beckerman, and it doesn't necessarily translate to a two-hour TV time slot.

"Television ratings is clearly a primary focus for our marketing efforts at the league level. We're not as focused on attendance and crowd building," Courtemanche said, adding that despite Beckham's departure, the Galaxy were to increase their season-ticket rolls by 2,000.

"It doesn't mean we don't have work to do on that front, but our focus ultimately is on getting more people to watch on TV," he added.

MLS' TV rights deals expire at the end of the 2014 season. Whether Garber reaches his 2022 goal might depend significantly on the fees MLS obtains in two years.

Perhaps that will be a tipping point — the moment a network really pays up and commits, when promotion hits the next level and when Brand Beckham finally recedes. Project 2022 requires that those performing well in MLS earn some real fame and some real money.

Handler is confident that point will come but is not sure when. So he's covering all his bases. During a conversation about modern marketing, the league's new tablet app and its digital strategies, he recalled a moment from a bygone era.

"Who could've predicted that in 1958, that famous game with the Colts and the Giants, that that was going to be the breakthrough moment? That was a moment when people started to see that (pro football) was a national phenomenon," he said. "I think there are a lot of possibilities like that for us."